The Wild One

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The Wild One

Released Dec 30, 1953

1h 19m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

75%

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24 Reviews

71%

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5,000+ Ratings

Johnny (Marlon Brando) and his motorcycle gang roll into Carbonville for a biker competition and raise enough hell to get kicked out of town. They repair to nearby Wrightsville and continue their reign of terror. The local sheriff (Robert Keith) is helpless to stop them, but when a rival gang arrives, he manages to arrest their leader, Chino (Lee Marvin). Meanwhile, Johnny finds himself attracted to the sheriff's daughter, Kathie (Mary Murphy), and decides to stick around.

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Gavin Lambert

Sight & Sound

In [director] Laslo Benedek the American cinema has an unusual talent, with a solidity and a spirit of humane inquiry which gives this film, in its faults as well as its virtues, a genuine and independent quality.

Mar 17, 2020

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Milton Luban

The Hollywood Reporter

Marlon Brando turns in a tremendously powerful performance as the inarticulate, frozen-faced, truculent outlaw who heads the gang of motorcycle hoodlums.

Jan 25, 2018

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Legions of Brando impersonators have turned his performance in this seminal 1954 motorcycle movie into self-parody, but it's still a sleazy good time.

Nov 7, 2007

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Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

Aside from Brando's presence as the rebel with a cause, I find the way it interrogates motorcycle gangs and juvenile delinquency quite bland. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 5/10

Oct 27, 2022

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

The Wild One's status as a cultural marker remains undeniable.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 23, 2022

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Clyde Gilmour

Maclean's Magazine

A violent, frightening and quite distasteful melodrama about a gang of hoodlum cyclists (led by Marlon Brando) who terrorize a sleepy town. Some of the acting is excellent.

Nov 5, 2019

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Will G

One of my favourite movies. Very dated but that's half the charm.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/10/25

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Wayne K

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Marlon Brando exploded onto the movie scene in the 1950s, essentially rewriting the acting rulebook and inspiring a whole new generation to give it a shot. His role in The Wild One might not be his most acclaimed, but its easily one of his most iconic. It’s a movie that came out at exactly the right time. Any earlier and it might have been dismissed as ridiculous; any later and it may have been written off as dated and passé. But being released during the era of the American teen cult, it did for bikers and bike gangs what Rebel Without A Cause did for street racers. Brando is a commanding presence onscreen, and here we can see the germ of Stanley Kowalski, though by his own admission he played this role with more sensitivity and sympathy than the script contained. It’s a film concerned with the generational divide, with violence and unrest, and the need to pin the ills and woes of society onto any group that dares to stand out and not follow the exact letter of the law. You can see the metaphors about division and abuse of power in the characters, from the rowdy but mostly harmless biker gangs to the lawmen who are either too cowardly or under the thumb to enact any kind of meaningful authority. The romance at its heart never goes as far as you’d think it would, and you see the characters grapple with their truest feelings while doing their best to repress them. Rebel Without A Cause might have been the contemporary teenager’s cultural flashpoint, but never forget The Wild One did it first.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/15/24

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Lanfranco C

Marlon is great in a good movie!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

07/01/24

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Alejandro E

One of the films that started the trend of the young rebel against authority and the system, with an incipient Marlon Brando, in one of his signature roles. Absorbing throughout its 81 minutes, which are unfortunately little for something so good.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/31/24

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Blobbo X

Solid production all around plus good acting from Brando, Lee Marvin, Mary Murphy and the rest. Nice to see Mr Kimball there in the gang, too.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/11/24

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Rami A

This may not be Brando's best film, but it certainly is entertaining.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/05/24

Full Review

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Laslo Benedek

Director

Marlon Brando

Johnny Strabler

Mary Murphy

Kathie Bleeker

Robert Keith

Sheriff Harry Bleeker

Lee Marvin

Chino

Jay C. Flippen

Sheriff Stew Singer

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Synopsis

Johnny (Marlon Brando) and his motorcycle gang roll into Carbonville for a biker competition and raise enough hell to get kicked out of town. They repair to nearby Wrightsville and continue their reign of terror. The local sheriff (Robert Keith) is helpless to stop them, but when a rival gang arrives, he manages to arrest their leader, Chino (Lee Marvin). Meanwhile, Johnny finds himself attracted to the sheriff's daughter, Kathie (Mary Murphy), and decides to stick around.

Director: Laslo Benedek
Producer: Stanley Kramer
Screenwriter: John Paxton
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 30, 1953, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 16, 2012
Runtime: 1h 19m
Sound Mix: Mono

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